Been a while side I updated this - didn't do anything with the car after the Jersey rally, I knew there was a list of things that really needed sorting so sort of buried my ahead in the sand for a bit. Couple of weeks ago decided it was time to crack on with it.

First thing was to pull the motor out. stripped off the heavy wiring loom as will be going standalone at last.

The motor has done 100k and was used for track days including nurburgring trips originally, so knew it was time for a freshen up. Whipped off the rod caps, nothing too nasty but the shells are all worn. Have ordered a set of fresh ACL bearings and got some arp rod bolts to go in. Interstigly enough these look to be a much darker colour then all the shells I've seen before?

Decided to sack off the heavy crossmember which allows the use of a rear loading sump. This meant i had to make up another crossmember.

After the mechanical steering pump failed i fitted a Merc A- class electrohydraulic pump. it was fine at normal speeds but struggled through and with fast movements of the wheel chicanes. did some research and its due to BMW's running lower flow an higher pressure than most cars. Apparently new mini pumps have an adjuster so that you can turn the pressure up, after consideration i decided it was time to ditch it all and fit some vauxhaul tat

With this there was no need for the z3 rack, so that was sold and replaced with a z4 rack, which is light because its manual, cheap and also 2.7 turns lock to lock.

Fitted in the car - the z4 steering shaft is good because its telescopic and fits straight onto the bottom of the corsa column. I also noticed after id pulled the motor out that the engine mount tabs had pulled and deformed where they were mounted to the front chassis rails. they had moved so much so that the engine was rubbing on the bulkhead. I think this came about from a combination of running very hard bushes on the gearbox and engine mounts, swell as the short tabs simply not being strong enough to hold the heavy engine! made up some new ones - if these move then i won't be happy! will have to make some brackets for the front arb now that in needs to be at the back of the crossmember.

Also had some rings machined so that I can run a top bolting top mount, this should help with remote canister inserts and easy changing of springs. it also give more travel.

i had issues with the front discs getting very hot, the standard 3.0 m3 discs weigh a ton too. I ordered some universal bells and had them machined to suit the hubs. the new set up is much lighter and apse 32mm wide - i had to take the callipers apart, make a 4mm spacer swell as a new crossover pipe.

Thats it for now - also fitting a skeleton flywheel and a twin plate clutch to help it rev and relieve some of the stress on the box. I knew the prop doughnut had died during the jersey rally but also found that the prop centre bearing carrier has fallen apart too, will have to make something beefier I think.

all looking good! I found same with hyrdro/electric saxo steering a few years back on my RWD Rover 25, went for Corsa column in BMW but still have heavy steering issues when manouvering, think its down to excessive BMW Castor?

Give me shout regarding stand alone ecu!

I like the strut tops, should have gone that way with mine, might make some alterations there!

Yes - the hairpin was a pain - that was also the stage where the wiper linkage came off! They tightened it artificially with a bag of gravel so that no one would take the wall out, after the first run through though someone split the bag open and gravel went everywhere so it was much easier to handbrake it round!

Its geared for 138mph in 6th at 8k currently! I wouldn't want to shorten the gearing anymore but the flatshift will be a nice addition. first is relatively tall at 2.38 so allows all the other gears to be close together.

Its a sequential dog box, not just my fast shifting and knackered synchro's!

Video below from 2014 Jersey rally which we finished in 21st out of 81 starters

Largely uneventful with the exception of the gearbox oil cooler splitting at the start of the event, we cut the lines and bridged them to continue

Bolts came out of right rear caliper bracket, lucky one of them just about managed to stay in!

Unfortunately the head gasket went half way through the second day - and we were losing water at a rather alarming rate. Avoiding revving the car too much helped keep temperatures under control. kept topping up at service

Did the whole event on the same wets that we used for the most of last year, in hindsight this lost us a lot of time in places, but its still a decent result.

Changes from 2013 included:

- new prop shaft eliminating the rubber Guibo and replacing it with a solid UJ

We did two events last year, a small local rally where we finished 11th overall out of 30 odd cars. it was a good shakedown for the jersey rally as i'd changed down to 15" wheels and skimped on the tyres by buying d-mack. it was quite a hot day as the event was run in June and i really wasn't a fan of the new tyres. they were okay to begin with but ended up getting far too hot about half way through the short stages. The stages were reversed for the second part of the day and we had to go down a steep hill, here the choice of EBC yellow stuff brake pads which had been cooked the year before quite a few times, coupled with the d-mack tyres really didn't feel good on the car. the brakes had no bite and the car was all over the place and very tail happy - it was also getting very hot hitting 100 degrees at the end of stages which was never a problem.

For the Jersey Rally in October I replaced the pads for Ferodo DSUnos and bought brand new hankooks. I also replaced the radiator for a 62mm thick mishimoto and replaced the two cheap eBay fans for a proper high power kenlowe job. The car felt great starting the Jersey Rally but being a dry event it was obvious that it was harder on the brakes than previous years we had done when it had always been raining or damp We started getting problems with pad pickup on the discs and at anything about 50 mph or so it felt like the brake discs were pringle shaped, but we pushed through as at least it still stopped! I felt like I had a lot more confidence with the car having more grip and the brakes having more bite. we were seeded 43rd out of 73 entries and I think we peeked at 11th Place overall on the Friday Night. When we got in the car on the Saturday morning it started up fine but wouldnt go into gear. I think the clutch arm had bent slightly and the clutch wasn't disengaging fully, which wasn't very nice on the down changes for the box - but thats what sequentials are for! Ended the event 13th overall which we were chuffed with. chucked it in the garage and haven't touched it since!